My Journey to Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer Expert

In today’s rapidly changing tech world, Cloud & DevOps expertise has become essential for streamlined software delivery. One of the most recognized validations of these skillsets in the Microsoft universe are Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate & Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert certification. Allow me to share my journey of securing these certifications, along with strategies and courses that played a pivotal role.

Exam details:

• Exam AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure: This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: develop Azure compute solutions, develop for Azure storage, implement Azure security, monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions, and connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services. On successful completion of this exam you will get certified as Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate.
• Exam AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions: This exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: configure processes and communications, design and implement source control, design and implement build and release pipelines, develop a security and compliance plan, and implement an instrumentation strategy. This exam has a prerequisite of completing the above mentioned exam Exam AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure or Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator. On successful completion of this exam you will get certified as Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert.

I took the above 2 exams in the below mentioned order and on completion acquired my certification of Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert.

from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/devops-engineer/

My Journey/Strategy:

1. Know the Field: Familiarize yourself with prerequisites for the certification exam which you want to appear for. This is very important. You need to clearly understand the different sections and their weightage. This will help you in preparation. You might get few topics which you don't known or haven't worked on earlier. Those will be new learnings for you.
2. Hands-On Experience: I have worked on Azure in my professional work. That has really helped me a lot. But there were many things which were new to me. While doing preparation I learned a many new concepts and I feel that has made me a better developer.
3. Udemy Courses: I went through 2 Udemy courses (mentioned below) which I highly recommend. These courses are good to start with and gave me a good insight on many different topics which are required for theses certifications in a short time (try 2x speed).
4. Utilize Microsoft Learn: Microsoft has a very well curated platform called Microsoft learn. I highly recommend you to go through it for these certifications or any other Microsoft related learnings.
5. Familiarize yourself with official Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft’s official documentation is a treasure trove — For each of the topic I went through that topic’s explanation in MS docs and it has literally everything what I wanted(and more; even beyond the scope of certification exam) .
6. Practice Exams: To fine-tune my readiness, practice exams were indispensable. They gave me a clear understanding of question types, optimizing my approach. I took 2 practice sets which are mentioned below.

I followed the above mentioned strategy in the exact order. I felt exam Az-204 to be a bit challenging as topics covered under it was very vast. And if you are really interested in what & how of Azure or in general about cloud or tech, you will definitely fall of the track of exam course (for good reason only). It took me around 3 months of preparation to crack Az-204.

On the other hand, I found Az-400 to be relatively simple & easy. It took me hardly a month to prepare.

Recommended Courses:

1. Microsoft Learn: Free modules and learning paths cover https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/exams/az-204/.
2. Microsoft Learn: Free modules and learning paths cover Azure basics and advanced DevOps practices.
3. Udemy — AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure
4. Udemy — AZ-400 Designing and Implementing DevOps Certification 2022
5. Udemy Practice set — https://www.udemy.com/course/az-204-mock-test/.
6. Udemy Practice set — https://www.udemy.com/course/az-400-mock-tests/.

Conclusion:

Certification isn’t the sole measure of expertise, but rather a tool for enhancing and updating our skills. As I acquired these certifications, my confidence grew and my LinkedIn profile gained added weight. The journey was both a revisiting of my knowledge and a step toward greater mastery. I invite you to embark on your own journey of growth and skill enhancement.